Robots are already prowling the world looking for copyright infringement. And this is just the beginning…

The future could belong to joyless robots. They would control what we see and hear. They would scour our social network activity, and could pose a serious risk to freedom of expression. These robots already exist: they are digital, and their task is to search for prohibited content.

In the case of the science fiction awards, it was a short clip from Doctor Who played as an introduction to an award for the script which excited a robot into switching off the feed. And the staff at NASA must have been stunned to learn that a YouTube algorithm considered that they were infringing the copyright of a private news organisation with footage from their rover on the surface of Mars.

The most worrying example has to be the restriction of live footage from a political rally. Digital gatekeepers who switch off a political convention are a worrying sign of where online freedom of expression is heading.

Websites are increasingly employing these algorithms not just because of the legal minefield of UGC, but also because it is cheaper and easier to prevent copyright material from ever being uploaded than it may be to deal with the consequences of user infringement, which can force companies to act when a complaint is raised by the copyright owner. If there’s a risk of incurring the anger of a major film studio, music label or software company, then it may be cheaper to employ tireless electronic moderators.

Whilst the law is clear that companies do not have to employ this technology, there is little to stop them from doing so. The risk then becomes the one outlined at the beginning of this piece: a future controlled by joyless robots. The internet has been a platform of free expression and communication. This has come at a price to the owners of copyright who routinely see their films, books, and music distributed illegally. The commercial need to prevent piracy and to manage content cannot be allowed to result in an assault on our freedom of expression. The offline presumption of freedom of speech should be protected and maintained online.

In a world where the song "Happy Birthday to You" is copyright, there’s nothing to stop an algorithm from cutting off a video stream between distant family members. I doubt that any software could be written to distinguish between commercial infringement and art. No string of code could have the requisite subtlety to sit in judgment on the limits of self-expression.

When it comes to the policing of news footage, would you trust a content algorithm which literally cannot tell which planet it is looking at? The urge to create robots to control the internet must be resisted.